Building the Federal Schoolhouse

Localism and the American Education State

Douglas S. Reed

Pioneers the idea of the 'education state': the notion that federal reform efforts have created a hybrid structure that blends local, state and federal actors into a new state entity that is mutually responsible for the education of children in the U.S.

Explores the notion that local political regimes are the limiting condition of the efficacy of federal-level U.S. reform

Builds on the historical primacy of localism in U.S. education and examines how the capacity and responsibility of 'operational localism' in the U.S. has played a central role in the construction of the education state

Building the Federal Schoolhouse

Localism and the American Education State

Douglas S. Reed

Description

Over the past 50 years, the federal government's efforts to reform American public education have transformed U.S. schools from locally-run enterprises to complex systems in which federal, state and local actors jointly construct the educational environment of U.S. children. Through struggles over school integration, the growth of special education, the teaching of English learners and the rise of accountability politics, the federal role in U.S. education has meant a profound reconstruction of local expectations, roles and political alignments. Seeking to construct the federal schoolhouse - an educational system in which there are common national expectations and practices - has meant the creation of new modes of education within local institutions. The creation of this "education state " has also meant that federal educational initiatives have collided with - or reinforced - local political regimes in cities and suburbs alike. To the extent that "all politics is local, " the federal role in public schools has changed both the conduct and the norms of local educational politics. Building the Federal Schoolhouse examines how increasing federal authority over public education in the U.S. changes the practices of 'operational localism' in education and how local regime commitments implement, thwart, or even block federal policy initiatives.

The book examines these issues through an in-depth, fifty year examination of federal educational policies at work within one community, Alexandria, Virginia. The home of T.C. Williams High School, memorialized in the Hollywood movie Remember the Titans, Alexandria has been transformed within two generations from a Jim Crow school system to a new immigrant gateway school district with over 20 percent of its students English learners. Along the way, the school system has struggled to provide quality education for special needs students, sought to overcome the legacies of tracking and segregated learning and simultaneously retain upper-middle class students in this wealthy suburb of Washington, DC. Most recently, it has grappled with state and federally imposed accountability measures that seek to boost educational outcomes. All of these policy initiatives have contended with the existing political regime within Alexandria, at times forcing the local regime to a breaking point, and at times bolstering its reconstruction. At the same time, the local expectations and governing realities of administrators, parents, politicians and voters alike have sharply constrained federal initiatives, limiting their scope when in conflict with local commitments and amplifying them when they align.

Through an extensive use of local archives, contemporary accounts, school data and interviews, Reed not only paints an intimate portrait of the conflicts that the creation of the federal schoolhouse has wrought in Alexandria, but also documents the successes of the federal commitment to greater educational opportunity. In so doing, he highlights the complexity of the American education state and the centrality of local regimes and local historical context to federal efforts to reform education.

Building the Federal Schoolhouse

Localism and the American Education State

Douglas S. Reed

Table of Contents

Preface Chapter 1: The Local Politics of Federal Education Reform Part I: Race and Reform Chapter 2: Race and the End of a Regime Chapter 3: Racial Change, Conflict and the Incorporation of Interests Part II: The Local Politics of the Federal Commitment to Equality Chapter 4: The Politics of Exit Chapter 5: Special Education and the Politics of Services Chapter 6: From Arlandria to Chirilagua: English Learners and the Catch-22 Education State Part III: The Politics of Accountability Chapter 7: Local Activism and Accountability Politics Chapter 8: The Titans Meet the State: Federal Accountability and School Transformation Chapter 9: Conclusion: Learning from the Education State

Building the Federal Schoolhouse

Localism and the American Education State

Douglas S. Reed

Author Information

Douglas S. Reed is Associate Professor of Government at Georgetown University, where he is also director and co-founder of the Program on Education, Inquiry and Justice. His research interests center on the politics of education, educational policy-making, federalism and judicial politics. He is the author of On Equal Terms: The Constitutional Politics of Educational Opportunity and has been named a Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Corporation as well as a Spencer Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow.

Building the Federal Schoolhouse

Localism and the American Education State

Douglas S. Reed

Reviews and Awards

"Much of what is written about education policy today is like the proverbial blind men and the elephant, touching pieces but missing how they fit together. In Building the Federal Schoolhouse, Douglas Reed pulls together the big picture of how multiple levels of government, and the politics within and across these levels, account for the policies and programs adopted and implemented today." - Jeffrey R. Henig, Professor of Political Science & Education, Teachers College, Columbia University